Posted by LogoDesigner on November 11, 2012 at 3:38pm
Hello all,
A lot of research on the net that I had done shows that Drupal is one of the leading free opensource CMS available, I'm in search of an easy to understand CMS that i can use to create my design firm by myself - May be hire a designer/ coder in the middle process, so is drupal really simple for a newbie like to me learn. my knowledge about php is nil, i know html and css.....
Thanks
MG Arfath
Affordable Logo Design Services
Comments
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I'll give the benefit of doubt here as your first post to drupal.org resembles link spam.
Drupal has a learning curve as does all CMS's. You don't need to have major understanding of PHP to work with Drupal. However, if you are totally fearful of it then that can adversely impact your ability to climb the learning curve limiting your abilities to perform more complex tasks.
knowing html and css is good. However, gaining an understanding of how to apply what you know to Drupal's output is key.
Thanks for commenting
Thanks for the comment, but i'm not a spammer - You want to know the research I have done here it is - wordpress is said to be simple and much more flexible, where as drupal is said to be good for developers and joomla is said to be designers CMS fav solution, my present site runs on wordpress which i customized my self using a theme, at present i want to keep it as it is but soon i would change to more robust cms either joomla or drupal i have used joomla trail - (30 days) but unfortunately during that trail period i was quite busy so wasn't able to see its features, thought it would be good to learn a bit more about drupal......... Thanks for telling that there isn't any need to learn or Master PHP to work with Drupal I guess if i can customize themes of other CMS's i can do it for Drupal also.
Thanks again
logo Designer
Drupal is not designer friendly
I started building sites with drupal a year ago and at the time I was in your exact position - evaluating the main 3 options as a designer, not as a developer.
I was drawn to drupal because I like it's developer nature and the community, as well as the ability to do things well outside the box. I'm very happy with the choice but the horrific learning curve and having to learn a lot of the technical aspects a designer really shouldn't need to has at times cost me a lot of time and headaches.
You will have to learn basic php, some js/Jquery probably and work with the database directly. From a purely design point of view the key downfalls of drupal is it's lack of themes and very unfriendly theming system (from a designer point of view) and the ways programmers see UI and UI labelling. What I mean by this is that almost everything in drupal and it's modules are created from a programmers point of view which leads to UIs and labels for functions which are not initiative to your end client/user.
Overcoming these issues on a project leads to build times well above where they should be until you have a collection of pre-built fixes/functions.
Drupal does however provide you the ability to perform backflips with very little hassle. It's just that making the backflip look good and user-friendly for your client to administer can be more trouble than it's worth.
I think that from your
I think that from your explanation of the knowledge required that this solution is not going to be viable for me presently as I have zero experience with PHP or database admin. If I wanted to develop these skills, can you recommend any resources where I could learn or would you advise to give it a go and then seek help from other members here?
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I'd recommend just jumping in
I'm pretty new to php - I'm learning by experimenting and php.net (reference). As long as you understand the basics of phpmyadmin (or database editing) and how databases work you'll be fine. I mentioned it because there have been many occasions I've needed to edit the database manually for various reasons.
If you wanted to give drupal a go then try building a site which you've already designed/completed.
Find a theme as a working base - I personally use Omega only. Not because I use the 960 system but because it has a fantastic interface for changing the location of elements within the regions and it also has a fantastic section/wrapper/region layering of the layout which is both easy to follow/remember. Use Omega Tools to save time creating a sub-theme.
Zen is highly recommended as a starting point but I found that having a completely unstyled base too much work.
To be able to move forward with Drupal you have to use views and learn to make it your friend. Personally I think it is the most important module outside of the Drupal core system and it's implemented in one way or another on every website I build. It is very drupal though - can be hard to get your head around, developer centric and full of so many more possibilities than you realise. You should be able to build any page layout with this.
With a website built (or at least a frontpage) with views you should know if drupal is for you or not.
Further reading/investigation:
Do a little bit of reading about the theming system in Drupal 7, specifically overriding theme output. It's a lot to take in but important to be able to change certain hard coded or predefined elements. The theming system isn't vital to know, but good to read about to understand the complexity of the system and the need for basic PHP knowledge.
Basic SEO and data organisation can be an issue. Drupal is sometimes critised because there are too many ways to do the same thing. A great example is how many different ways you can make a page.
Key systems/modules to understand/read about:
Taxonomy
MetaTags - There are a vast number of alternative or specialist meta tag modules also.
XML Sitemap
Chaos Tools - specifically Context
Panels - Another complex but powerful layout tool, like views but not linear.
Views Slideshow - this isn't important, just lots of fun. Slideshow anything.
That should give you a pretty good primer.
This is an interesting topic.
This is an interesting topic. I haven't read many articles about users who are coming from a graphic design background. In fact, it's true that most graphic or media designers stick with Wordpress, Indexhibit or hosted portfolio solutions.
As dkre.one mentioned this is due to the lack of high quality portfolio themes. Don't get me wrong on this. Yes, there are plenty of really excellent theme solutions like Omega, Zen, Blueprint, Acquia. However they all have its pro and cons.
If you already comfortable with Wordpress theme customization you're a huge step ahead. You have to get familiar with drupal variables and region concept. I am working on Wordpress and Drupal projects. As soon as a site starts to grow I rather work with Drupal. The look and feel is so much better. Theming isn't that much different. Even some wordpress plugins (Drupal calls them modules) are pretty similiar like CCK, Jetpack and so on. It really dependans on what site projects you're working on.
If you have to create custom built sites with easy site administration, Drupal is the best choice.
Drupal can be great for designers
I'm extremely passionate about this, I really think that a concerted effort to bring more designers in the drupal community can lead to some incredible outcomes for everyone.
Despite what I mentioned in my previous post drupal can be an incredible platform for designers because the tools and opportunities are everywhere, in some cases they just need to be developed on. With a php developer in house then the skys the limit.
I'm hoping to, time permitting, work on documentation for this topic - Drupal for Designers. There are a few books out there on the topic but it's something which as part of the main documentation could make it a lot easier for designers to come to drupal and for non-designers to get ideas on better presentation.
The recent report on the usability of Views is a great example of where just a little bit more emphasis on presentation and UI could make drupal much easier to adopt.
I'd like to get back on this
I'd like to get back on this topic. A good documentation would be essential. However I am sure that a Drupal installation profile (something like commerce kickstart) with various minimal portfolio templates would be perfect and a excellent starting point. What do you think about that?